Viktor Ullmann and Peter Kien wrote the opera “The Kaiser of Atlantis” in 1943 while in the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt. The chillingly absurd opera tells the story of a war-hungry dictator and the angel of death, who is so fed up with human cruelty that he goes on strike. Ullmann and Kien wrote the opera on pieces of paper they smuggled into the camp; the pair were sent to Auschwitz a few weeks after their first rehearsal and were murdered there.

The opera was considered lost for many years, but an unbelievable chain of events and coincidences led to its discovery by the composer and conductor Kerry Woodward. The film recounts this incredible rediscovery, which included the use of a medium (also a pianist and composer) who communicates with late composers and purports to convey direction from Ullmann to Woodward on how to present the work. The opera premiered in Amsterdam in 1975 and the film also documents its revival in Madrid in 2016.